England’s women level one-day series with comfortable win over South Africa

Sarah Taylor is the man of the match. She likes batting on her home ground and also with Tammy Beaumont - they hit in different areas and have fun together. The defeat in the first game was just a bad dat at the office, but she looked to play a bit straighter today. She also praises Sophie Ecclestone, who came back well.

Heather Knight says England started much better and notes that Beaumont and Taylor love batting together. Not much needed to be said after the kicking England took at Worcester, and the pitch wasn’t “an absolute belter”, but the batters picked their shots better. Knight still sees herself as a bowling option, but wasn’t required today.

Dane van Niekerk says it was like “a runaway train” when England got going, and they knew how good Beaumont and Taylor were. She believed her team could win for a bit, when Lee was hitting it miles, but they expected the world champions to come back fighting, which they did. She gives credit to England, and hopes to go better on Friday.

England might be slightly concerned by how long it took them to take a wicket, and how impotent their change bowlers looked. But it’s hard to whinge too much when you win so well, so the decider should be a belter.

It fizzled out at the end, but that was an excellent game of cricket, the first in the women’s game ever to feature three centuries. Lee’s in particular, was brilliant, but she couldn’t see it through or, more properly, didn’t get enough help.

49th over: South Africa 260-9 (Kapp 19, Ntozakhe 2) Target 332 And there she goes, cracking Marsh over the top and against the boundary advertising for six. Next, she deflects to mid on and looks for a two that isn’t on, but Brunt misses the stumps and Marsh isn’t in position to break them.

48th over: South Africa 251-9 (Kapp 19, Ntozakhe 2) Target 332 Brunt will not be wanting to hang around here, but she can’t force the breakthrough. A single from the over, and Kapp actually looks a pretty competent batter.